One in 10 Syrian refugee women suffer violence, says aid minister

Britain appealed for more help for women fleeing the Syrian civil war today amid reports that one in 10 of them have suffered violence.

Overseas Aid Secretary Justine Greening stressed that 70 per cent of refugees crossing into neighbouring countries were women or children.

As the government pledged a further £50 million for the refugee crisis in Lebanon, Ms Greening warned of women and girls becoming victims twice, having fled their home and then being exploited and abused.

Speaking from Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, she said: “A shocking one in 10 female refugees has suffered violence. We must all do more to ensure that we do not lose sight of their particular needs in this wider crisis. Keeping people safe and preventing violence has to be a top priority.”

She stressed that the number of refugees in Lebanon, a country the size of Wales, was set to double to more than one million by the end of the year.

The £50 million will pay for emergency food and shelter for some of the 585,000 refugees already in Lebanon, as well as boosting health, water, housing and education infrastructure needed to cope with the growing influx, with nearly 3,000 refugees arriving daily.

The money, which is on top of

£20 million in aid already provided by Britain, could also be used for vaccinations and feed for Lebanese livestock owners.

While in Lebanon, Ms Greening visited an informal settlement hosted by Save the Children International and a food voucher distribution centre.

With warnings that up to 10 million Syrians will have fled their homes by the end of the year, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appealed to forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and rebel fighters to put down their weapons during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

He stressed Ramadan is one of the four months on the Islamic calendar during which fighting is supposed to cease.

“I am calling for every military unit of the regular army and the Free Syrian Army, for every person holding a gun, to stop fighting and offer this month of peace as a collective present to their people — and to do so across Syria,” he said on the eve of Ramadan, which begins today.

For more than two years, Assad’s forces and rebels have been locked in a conflict that has escalated into an increasingly sectarian civil war in which at least 90,000 people have died.